WHSC creating review tools to support instructors

May 17, 2016

Do session plans for WHSC training programs help safeguard worker health and safety? You bet — but only if followed!

To further support WHSC-qualified instructors, WHSC is developing new review tools for key courses. These tools will be used by WHSC staff or mentor instructors to evaluate classroom instruction to help ensure instructors are delivering the training as intended and accredited.

Importance of session plans

WHSC’s program development staff design training programs with session plans that help workers carry out health and safety activities back in the workplace. These activities are the course’s action objectives. The action objective might be to carry out workplace inspections and incident investigations, safely handle equipment and materials, correctly wear fall protection equipment or follow biohazardous materials handling procedures.

Our session plans take instructors and participants through a series of classroom activities that develop the knowledge and skills needed to carry out the action. The session plan also builds-in participant demonstrations of learning – such as worksheets, role plays or hands-on practicums. These participant demonstrations give WHSC-qualified instructors the opportunities to evaluate and verify the participant’s knowledge and skills.

Critical demonstration of learning

All instructors need to follow through on all learning and evaluation activities in the session plan. When all is said and done, without verifying participants have acquired the requisite knowledge and skills, we haven’t done the job. We don’t want to send workers back to the workplace without the health and safety skills and knowledge required in their workplace.

And let’s be clear — many people don’t support this approach. Rather than demonstrations of learning, they prefer written pass/fail tests that create false barriers for many workers because of language, literacy or learning style. And that’s exactly what some people like about them. Some people would rather exclude workers than train them.

So let’s not put our approach at risk by not following it.

Maintaining our accreditation

Several WHSC courses – Working at Heights, CH-02 Propane, Basic Certification and Certification Part II modules – are accredited. If you’re not delivering the session plan as designed, you’re not delivering the accredited course. Ultimately, this could put our accreditation at risk too.

WHSC program developers are creating our first review tool for our Working at Heights training program. We will test run it later this spring.

The tools should help identify any problems so we can work with you to solve them. That might require further upgrading, training or mentoring, or maybe just a discussion over coffee. You might have a suggestion to improve a session plan. As always, we welcome this kind of feedback as well.

Together, let’s continue to ensure workers and their representatives get the kind of training they need to safeguard their health and safety.

Want the opportunity to discuss issues raised in this E-note? Be sure to register for our upcoming conference exploring strategies and techniques to ensure quality worker training.